September 4 2022
September 4th 2022
Old Testament: Deuteronomy 30:15-20 “Choose life”
Psalm: Psalm 139:1-16 “You formed my inward parts”
Epistle: Philemon 1-21 “I am sending him back to you”
Gospel: Luke 14:25-35 “He cannot be My disciple”
Sermon Text: Luke 14:25-35
Sermon Title: “The Cost of Discipleship”
Grace to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
“Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me, cannot be My disciple … any one of you who does not renounce all that he has, cannot be My disciple”. (Luke 14:27, 33) “If anyone wants to come after Me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily, and follow Me”. (Luke 9:23) This is the theme of the sermon this morning.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was a Lutheran pastor executed by the Nazis shortly before the end of World War Two; literally days before the allies liberated the prison camp he was in. In his most famous book, “The Cost of Discipleship”, he wrote, “when Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die”. This is the life of all Christians, not just the martyrs. Every Christian is to bear the cross appointed for us by our Lord.
This dying will take many forms. For some, it will involve literal death, as in the case of eleven of the Apostles and all the martyrs in the history of the church, even in our own day. For others, like Luther, it will involve a life lived under the constant threat of death and persecution from the world. When he wrote the words “take they our life; goods, fame, child and wife. Though these all be gone, our victory has been won, the kingdom ours remaineth”; Luther was speaking quite literally of what might happen; what he in fact expected to happen to him.
For others the cross will involve rejection and shunning of family and friends; who when you chose to follow Christ will not understand and will be offended by your priorities. For all Christians, bearing the cross will involve a denial of or death to the self, a constant battle with our sinful nature and daily repentance when we fall. It cannot be any other way, as Jesus clearly stated in todays’ Gospel. The heading given in most Bibles for this text is (the same as Bonhoeffer’s book) “The Cost of Discipleship”.
“Now great crowds accompanied Jesus, and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple”. (Luke 14:25-27) These words are really about the 1st Commandment; our relationship to God comes before even our closest earthly relations.
Luther said in his Large Catechism that whatever our heart clings to and trusts is really our “god”. He then proceeds to talk about many of the more common idols that tempt us, such as money/possessions, education, power, family and the like. We could easily add many things to this list of idols, such as science, radical environmentalism, pleasure/happiness; security, earthly peace/safety, mental and physical health and many others.
When hatred comes to us because of our faith, and Jesu promised that it would, we are tempted to take the easy way out in order to avoid suffering and our cross by any means necessary. So, we are often silent when we should speak God’s Word (to family or friends); perhaps we even out-right reject Christ and His gracious redeeming work on our behalf, out of a misplaced idea of God’s love; believing falsely that being “nice” and trying not to offend others is what makes a good Christian.
In reality, being a good Christian, a disciple of Christ, calls for us to renounce anything in our lives which interferes with our relationship to Him; this includes false teachings/teachers; earthly peace; family relationships, possessions, and even our own life. The Apostle Paul calls this way of life, “crucifying the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24) and “putting to death what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5) and “considering yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. (Romans 6:11)
“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it. Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to mock him saying, this man began to build and was not able to finish”. (Luke 14:29-30)
“And what king going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace”. (Luke 14:31-32)
Jesus is not trying to discourage people from becoming disciples, not at all; “He desires all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth”; (1st Timothy 2:4) but He is making it clear that becoming a disciple involves more than just joining an organization called “the church”; as if we were joining some civic organization or club. Christianity is more than having one’s name on a membership list or one’s picture in the church directory.
The promises made in the confirmation liturgy make this clear; “Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully? Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed, remain true to God? Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and church and to suffer all, even death, rather than to fall away from it”? The answer to these questions is “I do, by the grace of God”. (Lutheran Service Book, p. 273)
So, being a disciple involves building our lives upon Christ Jesus alone and by faith, receiving our strength from His Word and sacraments; the means of grace. Remember Jesus’ words from a few weeks ago; “strive to enter by the narrow door, for many, I tell you will seek to enter and will not be able”. (Luke 13:24) “There is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved”. (Acts 4:12) Jesus alone saves.
This teaching of Jesus is difficult, especially for those who tend to view Jesus as a calm, non-threatening man with a nice, warm, friendly personality; one who doesn’t ever get upset or angry with anyone. That is not the Jesus that shows up here in Luke 14; demanding our allegiance over and above everything and everyone else in this life.
It was not “nice” of Jesus to say what He says next; “if anyone of you does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be My disciple”. (Luke 14:33) Again, when we put our trust in anything or anyone other than the one true God, we are breaking the 1st Commandment and Jesus is calling us to repentance. Therefore, being a disciple of Jesus means, means to be willing to give up anything; including family, possessions, earthly peace, and our own ideas of wisdom; if God calls for it. Keep in mind that all that we have or might acquire in this life, already belongs to Him.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count it as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ”. (Philippians 3:7-8) We can only confidently believe these things (and take up our cross) if we are assured that our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake and that we have the hope of the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. We are assured of this because of the Gospel; as we sang in the sermon hymn “Chief of sinners, though I be; Jesus shed His blood for me”.
Jesus concludes the teaching for this morning by saying, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is good neither for the soil or the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear”. (Luke 14:34-35) This is a description of our lives apart from Christ having first priority.
This is made clear by Moses in the Old Testament reading, “see, I have set before you today, life and good; death and evil”. (Deuteronomy 30:15) To those who turn away from God and His Word, He said, “you shall surely perish”. (Deuteronomy 30:18a) Apart from Christ, nothing good will come to/of us; in fact, “the wrath of God remains on us”. (John 3:36b)
But whoever “believes in the Son (Jesus) has eternal life”. (John 3:36a). We who have been baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ, who have been forgiven all of our sins and been clothed in the righteousness of Christ; are called by Him to deny ourselves and take up our own cross; we are to “consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”. (Romans 6:11) “For, we have been brought from (eternal) death to (eternal) life”. (Romans 6:13b)
Through the means of grace, (the Word of God and the Sacrament), by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have been kept in the one true faith. (We) Believe this good news that Christ Jesus has done everything necessary for our salvation; and in response, “choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice, and holding fast to Him, for He is your life”. (Deuteronomy 30:20a)
When my wayward heart would stray; Keep me in the narrow way
Grace in time of need supply; While I live and when I die
Amen “The peace of God …